Kahlon calls for upping tax on residential real estate investors

Moshe Kahlon, the expected finance minister, confirmed that he intends to significantly increase taxes on investments in residential apartments.

“Some 25 percent of those purchasing second apartments are investors. We need to extract them from the market,” Kahlon said in a Channel 2 interview that aired on Saturday, the first since his Kulanu party on Wednesday an agreement to join the government coalition.

The logic behind a tax increase is to make it less profitable for investors to buy apartments and rent them out, thus keeping more apartments on the market for people who want to buy them. The tax would not apply to those buying homes they intend to live in.